ABSTRACT
Care for persons who are dying is at once simple and complex. Comprehensive care for terminally-ill patients is complex because dying is a multidimensional, multifactorial experience for the person whose life is ending. This chapter provides the reader with an understanding of that care. It emphasizes both the essential role of ensuring comfort for the dying person, as well as the distinguishing feature of hospice care, which is the recognition and preservation of opportunities for the person and family within the experience of dying. The chapter also provides a description of a "therapeutic stance" or caring attitude which clinicians from various disciplines can cultivate in striving to best serve their dying patients. The most fundamental feature of hospice philosophy is a recognition of dying as a part of living, an important part. The clinical evaluation of the dying person begins with listening.
